(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Longtime Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., may be facing down the potential end of his time in leadership after bungling a chance to reform the nation’s open-border immigration policy, the Daily Caller reported.
Democrats who pretended to be interested in securing the border burdened the bill with $60 billion in re-distributive aid to Ukraine, leading to numerous Republicans flipping their votes.
Several top Republicans in the Senate, including Rep. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that the latest debacle may be the last straw for McConnell, who has been the top Republican senator since 2007.
“Mitch McConnell, in effect, gave the largest in-kind campaign contribution to the Democrats’ Senate campaign committee in history,” Cruz noted.
He suggested that the failure of the bill would allow Democrats during their campaigns to say, “we wanted to secure the border. We tried to secure the border, but the Republicans wouldn’t let us.”
Such a campaign tactic would be a “wild-eyed lie” that is “completely false,” Cruz added, but it would nonetheless be effective.
In addition to a growing distrust of McConnell among conservatives due to his high-profile rift with former President Donald Trump, the 81-year-old minority leader has raised concerns following a series of recent health scares, including at least two moments when he appeared to seize up while speaking.
An anonymous Republican senator told the Daily Caller that McConnell’s failure to secure America’s border may be the best chance Republicans have to replace him with more reliable leadership.
The senator said that things were being “worked on behind the scenes” to arrange for McConnell’s successor.
“I think this is our opportunity to take him out, and we’re sort of working to figure out if that’s possible,” the senator noted, adding that centrist Republicans, including those who are typically aligned with McConnell, would likely have to exercise some boldness in order to secure a majority of the caucus.
“I think that there’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem where I think you probably have the votes, but you need somebody to step forward [who is] unwilling to step forward unless you have the votes,” the senator said. “It can’t just be a Mike [Lee] and Ted [Cruz] and a sort of ‘everybody who hates Mitch’ thing.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., became an Establishment pariah after an unsuccessful challenge last year, with McConnell punishing him and his supporters by yanking their committee posts.
